THE DEATH OF HOSPITALITY

I think I'm going to agree with Tim and Nina Zagat, publishers of the ubiquitous guides to restaurants, resorts and other things that give the dining and travelling public their own say about the places they choose to praise and boo for dining and lodging. Today the Zagats wrote an incisive screed on the state of declining service in our favorite and not-so-favorite restaurants across the country.

It reminded me why I haven't been enjoying many of the restaurants I've been visiting lately. With few exceptions (places where we're regulars and know the staff and management), restaurant wait staffs have been exceeding even my low expectations. Service timing is a real pet peeve of mine, and although most waitrons blame the kitchen for bringing out your next course before you're done with the previous course, they're just displaying their complete indifference to your dining experience and their lack of training. Even I was a waiter and manager long enough to know how to time a customer's meal to make sure it flowed smoothly. Value-priced restaurants, and even expensive ones, just don't seem to care anymore.

My mom worked in several restaurants over a 40 year career, and she genuinely cared about her customers, treated them with care and good humor and had a large cadre of regulars who made a point of requesting her when they dined at her establishments.

I know of no higher praise that any restaurant or its staff can receive than to 1) HAVE regulars who frequently dine at your place and 2) have regulars who specifically ask for YOU to serve their table.

That's why my mom HAD a 40-year career in the restaurant business. I doubt that any servers I've encountered in the past few years will ever approach that milestone or that distinction.

But what do you think? I'd love to hear your good and bad restaurant service experiences.

KARMA

I have the privilege during this transition in my life to be the Managing Editor of a newsletter produced by the Professional Service Group (PSG) of Mercer County, which is a free resource for professional networking, training, coaching, support and education for professionals in transition. Its mission statement says that it's a "voluntary, self-managing and mutual support network affiliated with the Mercer County One-Stop Career Center, for professionals who are seeking new employment and contracting opportunities throughout the region."

Next to my extended family, it's the finest group of people with which I've ever been associated.

The facilitator of this group, Craig Jez, is himself a great resource for brainstorming, career counselling, and no-nonsense advice, especially about networking and resume writing. He pens a column for the PSG Newsletter and he calls it The Last Word, and it's always a terrific read. What I like about the column is that Craig writes it in his own voice, and it actually reads like he talks, a mix of salesman/bartender/next-door neighbor that is a delight to experience.

I've had the good fortune of working with many talented and compelling writers as an editor over the years (Lew Bryson, Ken Alan, Jim Tarantino and Katie Loeb among them), but I am particularly enjoying reading Craig's columns from the past 3 years' worth of newsletters, which you can peruse at the PSG website, www.mercopsg.net.

Read them all.

For the July-August issue of the PSG Newsletter, Craig wrote about karma. Here are some highlights, but I encourage you to read the whole article:

"Patience is an attribute you all exercise every day. Patience is responding to the woes of bills due and still smiling at the job interview. Patience is replacing unemployment depression with acts of volunteer kindness. We had a member who recently landed who defined patience as “the positive energy required daily during a 17 month transition period.” Patience is doing for others as a PSG Committee member despite you yourself needing to find a job yesterday."

"Planning your time should include active networking. Persistent and effective networking is important because you never know who the person you are networking with knows. It is like an adult game of whisper-down-the-lane. PSG has experienced a growing history of happy coincidences where spontaneous networking conversations developed a contact that led to an interview that culminated in a hire. The Karma part is the ebb and flow of relationships evolved from networking. PSG members are constantly surprised by who steps up to help them land at the bleakest moment."

"Another concept surfacing in the market is 'relationship recruiting.' Sounds like a cousin to networking, but let me explain. Say you interview with an employer but it does not work. There is no fit, you are not a match for their corporate culture or otherwise it is not going to happen with that company. To keep the corporate contact, you of course thank the company for spending time to meet you and that you greatly enjoyed learning about them. The extra step is connecting them with a candidate from your networking pool. The employer might appreciate the gesture. Perhaps they might be inclined to return the favor by connecting you with others in the same professional network. The maximum response would be if they referred you to other hiring managers as future unadvertised positions open up."

"Whether you call it Karma or making your own good luck, positive things will happen when you get out of the house, get active and help somebody every once in awhile. If you do it now, do it more.

If you do not do it, get out and try it."

Good stuff, universal appeal, endless uses in anyone's daily life, employed or unemployed. I've seen it work in my life and it's hard to deny the power of karma. But Carig Jez said it better. He always does.

ARS PUERORUM ARTIS CAUSA

I delight in the art my children create. I can't explain it, but it fascinates me.

After collecting their artwork from the last two years of their schooling, I am continually amazed at their creative energy, and at the skill of their teachers to inspire them. Their preschool art teacher, Mr. Colavita, walked me into their school last spring for the student art show and showed me their self-portraits, which he mounted on a kiosk at the school's entrance, and pointing to their art, said, "Watch those two, they have something, they really do."

And ever since I have paid particular attention to the artwork they bring home from school. This year, their kindergarten year, under the guidance of their art teacher, Mrs. Skorupa, it seems like both Ben and Sophie have exploded with artistic energy, creativity and awareness. Their kindergarten self-portraits (above and below) are whimsically revealing, from Sophie's eyelashes and big smile to Ben's persuasive smirk. That will probably be my last attempt at any kind of critique of their work. The rest of this post will just be a display of their best stuff. I think you'll agree that their creative energy and verve are fun to experience.

Ben's "Squares" one of several takes on the art of Piet Mondrian, believe it or not. yes, Mrs. Skorupa was teaching them about Mondrian.

"Under The Sea" by Sophie

Ben's version of "Under The Sea"

Sophie's "t-shirt"

Ben's "t-shirt"

Dr. Suess hats by Sophie

Ben's take on the Dr. Suess hat

Pastel shadings from Ben

Sophie's pastel shadings

"Rainbow Fish" by Ben

Sophie's "Rainbow Fish"

Father's Day "neckties" from Sophie (l.) and Ben (r.)

Sophie's American flag

Ben's Spring Flower

Sophie's Sprin g Flower

Ben's water color "circles", so large a piece, this photo really doesn't do it justice. The visual power of it just blew me away.

Sophie's water color "circles". Again, these particular pieces are so big, they really are a knockout to see in person. Everything you see here I have displayed around the house, on doors to the basement, garage, laundry room and powder room. And it's starting to take over the walls of the den. Beats anything else we've hung in that room.

And this is just a small sampling of their enormous output of art over the school year. I'm trying to catalog it all, and I hope I'll be able to display more of it as I go through it all over the summer.

Biased parental pride? You bet. But I hope you enjoy the beauty and raw energy of Ben and Sophie's creative side.

Beyond The Golden Age Of Beer

It seems like just a few weeks ago that I was savoring an impressive sampler of pilsners with my friend Scott at Triumph Brewpub's Old City location during their "Klash of the Kaisers" event for Philly Beer Week. In fact, it's been almost a year and Philly Beer Week is joyfully upon in just 2 days, and the schedule for this year's extended (10 day!) "week" is very impressive. Stretching across the great expanse of the city itself and deep into the suburbs, this year's celebration is the pure embodiment of its slogan, "America's Best Beer Drinking City."

Beginning with the Hammer of Glory Relay Race to the Opening Tap at the Constitution Center on the evening of June 3 to the Ladies Beer Tea (!) at the Belgian Cafe on Sunday June 12, all the way to a "Scraps and Leftovers" event at Rembrandt's restaurant in Fairmount and a "Kick The Kegs" party in Blue Bell, the "week" if chock full of beery fun. You can even download a Philly Beer Week app for your Android or iPhone.

When I ran annual beer tours of the city for The Book and the Cook festival beginning in the late 90's, I printed up a Tour booklet for each participant that proclaimed that time frame as "The Golden Age of Beer in Philadelphia" and Philadelphia as the "Best Beer City in America." It was probably true even back then, but it is emphatically and dramatically and deliciously true now.

Philly Beer Week shines a huge spotlight on the rich, diverse and welcoming beer culture of the Delaware Valley, and even living an hour away from the city, makes me proud to a Philadelphian, even at a distance. I haven't begun to select the events I'm planning to attend, though I'm sure I'll make to at least one Grey Lodge event and make my way to Kraftwork and Memphis Taproom and the new With Love Beer Garden at the Four Season hotel.

Hope I get to raise a pint or two with you!

Farm Time

I've been waiting to write this sentence for weeks: The Honey Brook Organic Farm's season has begun!

Yesterday was our first farm share day of the season, and it was a small but rich bounty: 2 lbs of almost flawless arugula, 4 lbs of beautiful baby spinach, two big bunches of scarlet radishes. And, ankle deep in mud, the kids picked three quarts of intensely red ripe strawberries. Big, juicy strawberries. Yes, a strawberry-spinach salad with sliced almonds and an onion-poppy vinaigrette is in our future.

Also snagged some fresh oregano and tall, flat chives from the herb fields at the farm. Some of the oregano was tossed with grape tomatoes, garbanzos and olive oil for a quick salad for last night's dinner. Some of the chives were tossed with sliced potatoes and onions and olive oil and stir-grilled for dinner as well.

And this is just the beginning. The farm share season has begun!

Grilling In The Time of Rapture

This is not really a food post. Well, not completely.

But the End Is Near, or so they say, and well, I'm going to be prepared. I plan to be grilling some chicken when the Fateful Hour arrives on the west coast, bone-in chicken marinated in some of Wegman's excellent BBQ Chicken marinade. Maybe some grilled Yukon golds, tossed in olive oil and garlic, alongside, and some grilled New Jersey asparagus. The grill's plenty big enough, I think.

So if this Harold Camping fellow out in Oakland, CA is correct, things should get under way at about 6PM, prime grilling time at Casa Lawrenceville. I'm going to miss seeing my kids grow up and make me proud. Oh heck, I already am proud of them! I'll be missing those weekly beer chats in the "No Bull Inn" on starchat.net that I've been a part of on Friday nights (and now Saturday nights, too!) for almost 15 years. Good times, guys, good times. Heck, I'm going to miss beer. And Delorenzo's tomato pies. And the annual NJ Hot Dog Tour in September. The Grey Lodge. And Friday The Firkinteenth, for that matter. And of course, watching the Phillies win an other World Series. And maybe even (should I dare hope?) the Eagles winning a Super Bowl. Unless both of those teams are saved and swooped into the heavens too, of course.

I would include my family among the things I'll miss, but, frankly, if I make the cut and get whisked away in The Rapture, I fully expect to see almost all of them up there with me, or wherever that there place is. It could turn into one giant Salamido Family Reunion (my mom's big, loud Italian family, all of whom are priceless to me) for all eternity.

I better plan on grilling a LOT more chicken.

Mirrors, Ladders, Umbrellas and Ale

I'm not the superstitious type. That's why I love when Friday the 13th rolls around every year, even when it occurs as much as three times in one year. But this year, it rolls in only once, and it rolls this week. That makes for an extra special FRIDAY THE FIRKINTEENTH at the Grey Lodge Pub in Northeast Philly.

The only beer festival dictated by the calendar, FTF is, to my mind, the greatest of all American beer festivals for the sheer simple democracy of it: arrive, wade through the amazingly friendly mob of cask ale lovers, order a beer from one of the seven or so firkins atop the bar, and savor some pure heaven in a glass. Beer as it was meant to be, fresh from a small keg, poured by gravity as its propellant, amid the cameraderie of old and new-found friends. And beer folk are the best new-found friends in the world.

There will be about 30 firkins of fresh, cask ale served throughout the day at the Grey Lodge, beginning at noon on the 13th. They will be served 7 at a time, and the sheer variety of them all is impressive. Here is the most up-to-date list of offerings, from the Grey Lodge's own website:



Cigar City Humidor IPA
Cricket Hill Reserve Series Brown
Dock Street TBA
Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA
Flying Fish Farmhouse
Fullers London Pride
Lancaster Milk Stout
Manayunk Brewerytown Brown Ale
Manayunk Hop Phanatic
Nodding Head Marauder
Philadelphia Brewing Fleur de Lehigh
Prism Bitto Honey
Sixpoint Modern Rye
Sly Fox 113 IPA
Sly Fox Chester County Bitter
Stoudts Pils
Stoudts Special Bourbon Barrel Aged Scarlet Lady ESB
Troegs Hopback Amber
Troegs Javahead Stout
Victory Headwaters Pale Ale
Wells Banana Bread
Wells Bombadier
Weyerbacher Verboten with Camomille Tea
Yards ESA



Feeling lucky? I'll see you there. Bring an umbrella. Or a ladder. Or a mirror. Oh, never mind.